EPICENTRE: Roma History of Contemporaneity in Central Europe
What happens to the history of contemporary art when Roma art is written back into it?
EPICENTRE: Roma History of Contemporaneity in Central Europe is a new international cultural cooperation project tracing three decades of Roma artistic production across Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It brings together four institutions to research, document and share the history of Roma contributions to contemporary art in the region.
The project starts from a simple but significant premise: this history already exists, but it has not yet been brought together and examined in this form. Through the works of artists, exhibitions, institutions and ideas that have shaped Roma artistic production since the 1990s, EPICENTRE seeks to establish a fuller account of how contemporary art in Central Europe has developed.
Rather than treating Roma art as a separate or marginal chapter, the project places it within the broader history of contemporary art. It asks how Roma artists have shaped artistic debates, expanded cultural narratives and contributed to the ways we understand contemporaneity today. In doing so, it also addresses questions of visibility, representation and the institutional conditions through which art history is written.
EPICENTRE brings together four partner institutions from across the Visegrad region:
European Roma Cultural Foundation (ERCF), Hungary
Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Faculty of Fine Arts, Slovakia
Fundacja W Stronę Dialogu, Poland
Artivist Lab, Czech Republic
Each partner contributes its own experience, networks and knowledge of Roma cultural production. Together, they will research artistic practices and histories, organise exhibitions and public discussions, develop educational activities and bring this shared history into wider circulation. The collaboration also connects established artists and cultural practitioners with a new generation of Roma artists and audiences.
Supported by the International Visegrad Fund, EPICENTRE positions Central Europe as a vital site of Roma creative production and cultural exchange. Its regional perspective makes it possible to trace connections across national borders, revealing shared histories, different artistic trajectories and the networks through which Roma contemporary art has developed.
Over the coming months, the project will unfold through research, exhibitions, debate and education. These activities aim not only to recover overlooked histories, but also to make them part of the conversations shaping contemporary art today.
Contemporaneity has a Roma history. EPICENTRE brings that history into view.
Follow the European Roma Cultural Foundation for updates on the project and its activities.
Project: EPICENTRE: Roma History of Contemporaneity in Central Europe
Partners: European Roma Cultural Foundation; Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Faculty of Fine Arts; Fundacja W Stronę Dialogu; Artivist Lab
Support: International Visegrad Fund
